This invention relates to an electronic system for displaying current pricing information on retail product shelf edges and promotional signs, and more particularly to such a system which groups price displays into strips and updates them by the location determined by an electronic overlay rather than by an address programmed into each display module.
Heretofore, such as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,002,886, dated Jan. 11, 1977, electronic pricing display systems have utilized a movable display module containing circuitry for recognizing an address code for remotely selecting the module from a computer control system. U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,880, dated Feb. 19, 1985 illustrates using the retail Universal Product Code (UPC) number as the address code for the display modules.
A multiplicity of display modules are connected to a bus providing power and data. U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,534, dated Sep. 14, 1993 illustrates a mechanism for locating the presence of a movable display module on one of a multiplicity of said buses. The specificity of location detection is limited to the length of the shared bus. A person in the store must program the correct address into the display module. U.S. Pat. No. 4,766,295, dated Aug. 23, 1988 illustrates a method for programming addresses into wireless display modules using a handheld controller in the aisle.
All such programming procedures place additional responsibilities on store personnel to assign addresses accurately. My invention bonds the product electronic identification onto a display overlay which is printed and programmed simultaneously. This assures consistency between the electronic information and the human readable information. A separate shelf strip provides the display mechanism for showing product prices for whatever overlays are placed on top of the strip.